When Kidambi Srikanth fought for the match of his life

Kidambi Srikanth held his nerves for one hour and four minutes. In other words, these sixty four minutes meant a lifetime for him. He was up against the world number 3 Lin Dan, who was famous for making the opponent nervous through his dominating game. The only positive that Kidambi drove out was the fact that he had beaten Lin Dan, two years back in the final of the China Open in his own backyard.

At the same time, he knew Lin Dan was not going to hold himself back and like the dragon that symbolizes his country, he was going to spit fire.

When the quarter final clash began, the dragon quickly came into his elements. Kidambi held him for a long time, eventually going down in the first set 6-21.

The statement had been made by Lin Dan. He was not going to stop roaring. Kidambi, however, refused to bow down so easily. He did what champions usually do. He fought and fought back. Lin Dan had trapped Kidambi by playing long rallied with him, something at which he had expertise on. Srikanth made sure he did not succumb to his plot in the second set. His plan worked well and he won the second set 21-11.

It all came to the last set. Lin Dan did not lose confidence in his long rallies. This time around he was mentally prepared to counter the counter of Kidambi. He continued his magnificent stroke play and made Kidambi play wayward shots. It was only a matter of time that he clinched the match.